Don’t waste that leftover meat! Try making these easy meat sandwiches, which can be a tasty way to use leftover meat or take advantage of sale prices.
Easy Meat Sandwiches
I watch for Bologna to go on sale or get it 2 for 1 and make a big batch of Bologna Salad made with some hard boiled eggs, pickle relish, mayonnaise, shredded Cheddar, and chopped onion.
I put this all through a grinder (or food processor) and divide it into small containers. I keep out one container and freeze the rest. I take sandwiches to work for lunch made from this Bologna Salad two to three days a week along with some chips I bought on sale. The onion and Cheddar cheese are nice additions and the amounts can be varied.
Sometimes I also use leftover chicken, turkey, or any kind of meat. This saves a lot on lunch (some of my coworkers spend as much as $20.00 a day at local restaurants).
-John
Meat sandwiches are a great way to use leftovers.
Ground meat sandwiches are my favorite and this is a great way to use leftover roast, chicken, ham or turkey or to make meat stretch for a meal.
Many years ago, I was visiting a friend and a lady from her church had us over for lunch. She made the best meat sandwiches I had ever tasted. I couldn’t believe it when she told me it was bologna and cheese grated with mayo. They were so good!!!! It didn’t taste like bologna at all.
Another surprise grated meat sandwich I loved was Spam. I grate Spam with dill pickle and mayo (I add a little pickle juice for more moisture). No one I make these for ever knows it is Spam and they always love the sandwiches.
-Jill
Note: We add sweet or dill pickles to many of our meat sandwiches. Chopping the pickles is one job Tawra and I both hate doing. Recently, she ran a jar of pickles through her chopper. Now she stores already chopped pickles (like a relish) in her fridge so all she needs to do is to spoon out a little when she needs it.
For more money saving recipes and tips check out the Dining On A Dime Cookbook.
Hi, I make these sandwiches too, but I didn’t think you could freeze boiled eggs successfully–which this filling contains. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Um, my favorite, chopped opinion!
:)
Jill, when you say “grated” bologna and cheese do you mean finely chopped as in a food processor? I love this idea. Tuna salad and egg salad are getting a little boring.
you can also buy this as ‘ham salad’ in the grocery deli’s
I do. I don’t have a food processor and use a hand grater to do my bologna and spam but if I am doing ham, chicken or roast I do it in an old fashioned meat grinder because it gets even finer. Things like egg salad I chop. I think though that most food processors do the same thing.
Jill
I’m not sure what to tell you Carole on freezing hard boil eggs. To be honest I am confused on that too. Most every place says not to freeze them but my mom and aunt both have made fancy egg sandwiches for years for many many weddings and always freeze them and they are delicious so I’m not sure what the difference is. Maybe some of our other readers have a clue.
Jill
THat sounds crazy delicious, I think I’ll make it for dinner tonight! Once, a famous, very skinny actress once said in an interview, white bread and mayonnaise, there’s no better combination in the world. She’s right! Thanks Jill!
I’ve never thought of doing this with bologna. I appreciate the idea.
I have never heard of this before, but it sounds yummy. I’ll definitely try it–
Do you freeze the all the ingredients with the mayonnaise in it? I thought you couldn’t freeze mayonnaise.
I don’t freeze my ground up meat too often but when I do I just freeze the meat. Then take it out and add the mayo, pickles, celery, nuts or what ever I want at that time. Usually the grinding is the hardest part so keeping some frozen does come in handy.
When I am not freezing I have an old fashioned crank hand grinder and I run the pickle through it at the same time.
I use my osterizer with the meat grinder. put it all through at the same time and freeze it without the mayo.
I have bags of ham, beef and balogna with everything ready to go just add mayo.
I do up entire hams and roast at a time so the meat grinder is the best for me.
I mix the mayo right in the bags as I take them out and thaw them overnight for lunch the next day.
My mother-in-law made this bologna meat mixture for years, but called it Ham salad. She added other things if they were on hand-celery, pimento, green pepper, green olives, etc. Her husband loved fried bologna sandwiches with lettuce and mayo on toasted bread. My dad loved fried spam with his over easy eggs in the morning. MY favorite sandwich is fried crisp bacon with peanut butter on toasted bread!!
Fried bologna sandwiches I love love love (of course it must have mayo). I slice my hot dogs into length wise and fry them which is kind of the same flavor. Now bacon and peanut butter hummm may have to try that one Barb. :) :)
I love bacon and peanut butter on toast sandwiches. My mom would always make those for breakfast when I was kid.
Thank you Jill and Grandma. I appreciate the advice!
Jill,
Ya gotta have the bacon or toast still warm so the peanut butter melts a little-let us know what you think. I learned this from my Grandma who was a wonderful cook.
I know what you mean Barb about having the toast warm to melt the peanut butter. I normal eat my peanut butter on warm toast so I’m pretty sure adding the bacon will be a winner for me. Thanks for the idea.
Here is Florida folks like to eat tomato sandwiches, pineapple sandwiches, and banana sandwiches. Of these three I only eat banana, and it is best with mayonaise and white bread. I don’t like tomatoes and the pineapple is just too soggy. we also eat a lot of pimento cheese sandwiches. They are very yummy!
one of my favorite sandwiches is pb and j on toast .. (or on crackers if there isnt any bread in the house at the moment) …
hubby used to eat ham salad and fried bologna and/or spam .. his favorite was to cut the spam thin, fry in the pan a bit and then put on a piece of cheese and crackers (like hordoerves, sorry spelling) .. or grilled cheese with the spam or bologna that is fried first and hten put in the grilled cheese … add a tomatoe (if there is any) .. and serve with a dill/garlic pickle .. :D
Do you know how hard this job is? I have to post all these yummy sounding things about my lunch time and you guys always come up with some yummy things.
i agree jill.. :D
I agree with you both, Jill and Rose:) I also love peanut butter and banana sandwiches. They can be dipped in an egg and milk mixture, like french toast and then fried. You can roll them in cinnamon and sugar, or pour syrup on them-or both!
Hey y’all,
my Mama (just passed in Oct, bless her heart) used to make a bologna salad using similar ingredients, except she always used Miracle Whip, onion & sweet pickels, and she bought the bologna whole and put it thru the meat grinder.
we all loved it, even us kids! and my Dad still craves them today. I haven’t been able to find whole bologna anywhere.
thanks for the walk down memory lane!
Jennifer
Jennifer you might try the deli section of your grocery store. I have noticed several of ours in town have started carrying it and they will cut off the amount you need off of the slab. I do used the sliced in the package to grate just because I too couldn’t find the whole for awhile.
I think my favor was when I was a teen I visited my friend in a town of about 300. We would go to this little bitty grocery store and at noon the store keeper would cut off a slice of bologna for us and give us a couple of slices of the softest Wonder bread you ever tasted to put it between. Oh, Yummmmm. We we stand in the store munching away and visiting with everyone.
Jennifer – Have you tried Wal-Mart? Wal-Mart here in South Dakota has offered bologna in 5 lb. tubes.
thanks for the reply & I enjoyed your memory! now I want to run out and get some bologna…my father-in-law was kind enough to give us a meat grinder. it’s time to put it to use. gosh, I’m HUNGRY! oh, it’s about lunch time for me, no wonder!
take care. I read y’all every work day & appreciate the frugal tips.
Jennifer
Rachel, I LOVE tomato sandwiches!
Oooh I love these meat sandwiches! The first time I ever had one was at a dinner at Church. I had to have the recipe and was shocked to find it called for chopped turkey bologna. Another sandwich idea my boys love is Grilled cheese w Italian bread, medium to sharp cheddar, Granny Smith apple slices, and bacon strips.
I grew up with Ham Salad sandwiches-bologna, sweet pickels, and onions made with a grinder and mixed with Miracle Whip. Those are the best! Picnics, birthday parties, lunches, whenever the whole family was together, this was the sandwich of choice. It brings back many happy memories of great family times together. My kids love ’em too. I still make them and now my granddaughters are enjoying them. A little piece of history for the new generation!
I add extra vegetables ie:broccoli, califlower, carrots radishes and gr pepper, stretches the meat further and you get all the nutrition. picky eaters may not enjoy but i love them. you have a pretty complete meal you can hold in one hand. just run through the grinder with the onions and meat
I like warm peanut butter sandwiches sometimes, too. Occasionally for breakfast I’ll make a “Toasted Buttered Peanut Butter Apple Butter Sandwich.”
Toast 2 slices of bread.
Butter while still warm
Spread peanut butter (preferably crunchy) on one side
and apple butter on the other side.
Put together and cut in half diagonally.
Yum!
I love bologna salad. I grew up eating it and have been making it forever. I never thought of freezing it. I buy marked down deli bologna and I vary the cheese as to what is on sale or marked down. Not a fan of swiss with it but other cheese works well. I also love fried bologna.. I use my food processor but have made it with an old fashion crank meat grinder too.
I believe that you can’t freeze whole boiled eggs because they get tough. You can freeze grated eggs, which I boiled and chop before they go bad.
However I like ketchup on my spam and bologna! And as the grand daughter of a German immigrant the bread must be hard enough to hurt if you drop it on your foot!
To each their own!
I got several hams for Christmas and how long can I keep them in Frig before I need to freeze for keeping and what do you recomend on keeping them? Thanks
There’s a use by date on them and that’s when they need to go in the freezer if you haven’t use them by then.
When my girls were young & we had real tight times, all beef hot dog were cheap & I would grind them up with all kinds of goodies & keep a jar in the fridge. The girls would be hungry after school & grab that jar, spread on crackers. Held them over until supper. I still make them when franks go on sale.
I have several recipes that call for rice flour. Is it possible to make rice flour myself with rice I already have? Thank you
I think you can Diane. Instead of trying to explain on here you might google how to make rice flour and it will show you several different ways to do it and you can pick the one that will work best for you.
I grew up with what mom called ham salad, it was bologna, we have a grocery here called Save-A-Lot, they have the bologna, in 3 pound rolls. Best way to make the salad as the meat doesn’t have a chance to dry out. After my brother in laws funeral, I was a new bride and expecting our first baby, we all went to the grandparents house after the grave side services. One of the things Grandma had made, was a ground roast salad, it was so good as a sandwich, never heard of doing that. Great way of using left over roast. I do that every now and then, but fix few roast with 2 of us.